Glamour of the Gods – National Portrait Gallery

7th July – 23 October 

National Portrait Gallery

Open Daily: 10:00 – 18:00

Thursday and Friday open till 21:00

Admission: Standard – £6, Concessions – £5.50/ £5 (children 12-18 years, Senior Citizens, Registered Unemployed, Students, Disabled people with one carer).

National Art Pass holders 50% discount

This stunning exhibition entitled ‘Glamour of the Gods’ is a celebration of Hollywood portraiture from the industry’s ‘Golden Age’, the period of 1920 through to 1960. From Greta Garbo and Clark Gable to Audrey Hepburn, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, it is these portraits that transformed actors and actresses into international style icons. In many cases these iconic photographs were the career-defining images of Hollywood’s greatest names and helped to show their appeal to their audience. The National Portrait Gallery will be featuring over 70 photographs, most of which are very delicate, unique vintage prints displayed for the very first time, the exhibition is taken from the extraordinary archive of the John Kobal Foundation, which demonstrates what an important role photography takes in creating and advertising the stars to the public.

‘It was a bold man who ever dared to disagree with John Kobal on the most minute point of Hollywood history. The range of detail he had stored in his mind was encyclopaedic.’

 This next quote was taken from The John Kobal Foundation website, ‘John Kobal was very keen to find a way in which he could see his own enthusiasm for photography continued after his death. In 1990 he formed a charitable foundation – The John Kobal Foundation – to which he donated the photographic negatives and fine art photographs that he had collected over the years. These provide a source of income that is used by the foundation to encourage interest in and help advance the general public’s appreciation and awareness of photography and particularly the area which most interested John – the art of portrait photography.’

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